Chapter87
As a technical staff member, Harriet had her own private office
by the window, with a view that took in most of Amberville at a
glance.
After getting familiar with the company in the morning, Harriet
went to the lab in the afternoon, where she did facial
recognition registration and received her lab access card.
By the time she finished getting acquainted with the lab and
returned downtown, the other alumni were already waiting for
her at the restaurant.
Reginald was there too.
As Harriet entered the private dining room, Reginald smiled and
introduced her to everyone, “Harriet, you’ve all heard of her,
right? From now on, she’s part of Galaxy Innovations.”
“Of course we’ve heard of her. Harriet is a legend at Amberville
University.”
“Welcome to Galaxy Innovations, Harriet.”
“Welcome to Galaxy Innovations, Harriet. Looking forward to
working with you.”
There were seven or eight guys in the room, all graduates of Amberville University.
Harriet’s field was male-dominated, and she was the first
female R&D employee Reginald had hired.
Everyone called her junior because they had graduated before her. Two of them had joined the company the year before and the year before that, but both had PhDs, so they had started
university earlier than Harriet.
“Thank you, thank you all. I hope to learn a lot from you seniors
in the future.”
After a brief round of introductions, everyone quickly found
common ground, chatting about professional topics.
Harriet was amazed-she had only been away from her field for
three years, yet equipment manufacturing had advanced so
much. She hadn’t expected Galaxy Innovations to be even more
impressive than she thought, with a business scope that was
truly astonishing.
After dinner, when everyone was leaving, Reginald gave Harriet
a ride home.
On the way back, Reginald talked to her about many
professional topics, as if he wanted to make up for the three years Harriet had missed in just one day.
Harriet listened very attentively.
When the car stopped at the entrance of Auburn Heights,
Harriet unfastened her seatbelt and politely said to Reginald, “Thank you, Mr. Barton. I’ll head in now.”
“Go ahead. The sooner you get familiar, the sooner you’ll be back in the swing of things.”
“Okay.” Harriet nodded in agreement, opened the car door, and
got out.
Reginald rolled down the window, said goodbye to her again,
then turned the car around and drove off.
Watching Reginald’s car drive away, Harriet turned around,
finally opened the gate, and went inside.
***
In front of the bedroom’s floor-to-ceiling window, Ellsworth stood with both hands in his pockets, looking calmly
downstairs.
His face was expressionless.
Downstairs in the living room, when Harriet quietly opened the
door and entered, Jacquelyn and the others were already
asleep.
Back on the second floor, she opened the bedroom door and
saw Ellsworth in the room, turning away from the window.
Harriet was startled by him.
But she quickly regained her composure, smiled gently, and
greeted him, “You’re back.”
She hadn’t seen him for a week and thought he would stay
away like before, but unexpectedly, he had shown up again.
Without a word, Ellsworth watched Harriet, then picked up a
cigarette and lighter from the cabinet and lit one for himself.
A faint ring of smoke slowly drifted from his lips as he asked in
a flat voice, “You went to Galaxy Innovations?”
“Yes, I just reported in today.” Harriet added, “I asked Dad to
sign my resignation letter.”
Ellsworth flicked the ash from his cigarette and just looked at
Harriet.
Seeing this, Harriet met his gaze calmly and said, “Dad will handle my departure from the company. It won’t affect the
company or your work.”
At this, Ellsworth finally let out a small, amused laugh.
He then bent down, stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray,
looked up at Harriet, and said in a flat voice, “It’s late. Get some
rest.”
Now that she had already reported to Galaxy Innovations, Ellsworth couldn’t be bothered to say much more.
She had expected a tough confrontation, but to her surprise, Ellsworth didn’t say anything to her or get angry. Harriet was a
little taken aback.
So she glanced at Ellsworth, said nothing more, picked up her
clothes, and went to the bathroom.
When she came out of the bathroom after her shower, Ellsworth
was sitting on the bed reading a book-one of her professional
texts.
As Harriet tied her hair into a low ponytail and got into bed,
smart home robots?”
“Yes.” Harriet was surprised that Ellsworth suddenly brought up her field, and added, “I’ll be joining the project later. We’re
mainly trying to develop a companion robot that can do
housework, but we also want to integrate current Al systems to provide more emotional companionship.”
